Well, it took a few years of work, and I was one of the 12 Canadian Glaucoma specialists involved in this drawn out process. This was an attempt by the Canadian Glaucoma Society to propose guidelines for collaborate care with Optometrists in the management of glaucoma patients

​What is best for our patients needs to be our guide with respect to managing patients with glaucoma. What should this model look like? Is it a collaborative model between Optometrists and Ophthalmologists or competitive? When should Optometrists check with Comprehensive Ophthalmologists or Glaucoma specialized ophthalmologists when caring for glaucoma patients?

Please visit the British Columbia Association of Optometrists website to read a very important posting regarding new regulations set to be implemented in our province that will serve to blind our population by ignorance. The change in the Health Professions Act will permit opticians to dispense glasses or contact lenses without the need for anything more than computerized eyesight testing to estimate the required strength. By no longer requiring a proper examination by an Optometrist or Ophthalmologist, the people of our province will no longer be screened for asymptomatic eye diseases like glaucoma, retinal tears, and other conditions that will lead to permanent visual loss if not found and treated early.

On Sunday 11Apr2010 I had the opportunity of speaking with a fairly large gathering of Optometrists from across British Columbia at a conference they were holding at the UBC Eye Care Centre. I was invited to talk about how best to work together in caring for patients with glaucoma as well as an update on my practice. This was an exciting opportunity given my involvement with this blog that Dr Hom and I started that deals with that very subject, as well as my work on the Canadian Glaucoma Society's (CGS) subcommittee on Inter-professional care of patients with glaucoma.

This tweet that Dr Hom posted this past week, and our exchange of responses that followed, is what inspired us to start this blog on how best to have Eye Care Providers (ECPs) work together. Although micro-blogging with Twitter can provide some instant feedback, many potential great learning moments can just go unnoticed in that medium. Hence, the chance to continue where we left off by having people add their comments.

WholeLottaRob

I started this site in 2009 to write about Glaucoma, Health IT (EMR, EHR), Technology and to host my podcast series "Talking About Glaucoma." There is a shortcut to this blog to make it easier to find http://iguy.tv/blog.

I am a glaucoma sub-specialized Ophthalmologist and have a full time clinical practice at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic of the Geisel School of Medicine in Hanover, NH. I have a longtime interest in the use of technology to help in medical care as well as in Education. In addition, I was a very early adopter and developer of Electronic Medical Record systems who has lectured internationally on the topic of making the transition to EMRs in daily practice.